Reviewer Rodeo: Trending Topics

John “Dubya” Whitehouse
One of the focuses on gaming in 2011 seemed to be Season Passes. With games such as Mortal Kombat, LA Noire, Gears 3 and Saints Row: The Third all getting in on the action, it seems to be a trend that will definitely carry over in to 2012.

It is also a trend that many people will see the benefit of. If it is a game that you love and want to see more of, why not snap up a pass that will give you most of the DLC for a reduced price. All of the above games had/have substantial DLC and to buy it all in one go and not have to worry about having the cash to lay out for separate items seems like a no brainer to me.


However, like most things, it can be abused and that is something we have to keep an eye out for. Publishers could easily fool you in to a season pass, thinking you would get new content in the form of missions and characters, only for you to get some kind of horse armour! As long as they spell out exactly what you would be getting in the pass, so that you understand the value of it then it is something that I hope will continue.

Michael “PaladinXII” Futter
2011 saw a lot of interesting changes in the marketplace. Certainly, the persistence of Online Passes was cemented. We’ve seen good Season Passes (Mortal Kombat, LA Noire) and not so good Season Passes (Gears of War 3 – a promise of all new content that wasn’t on the disk didn’t exactly come to fruition). We’ve also seen zombies in games doing their best Fonzie impression, sailing high and fast over that shark (we get it, you’re dead and hungry).

The one trend that, while certainly not new in 2011, that has taken a turn for the better is pre-order bonuses. I still hate them with a passion, but whereas before I thought they were entirely untenable, now they are simply just frustrating. The change seems to be coming from the publishers, many of whom now understand the value of making pre-order bonuses available for purchase down the line. Didn’t get WWE ’12 at launch but want The Rock? You’ll be able to purchase him. Missed out on a klassic Mortal Kombat skin and fatality? Fear not, you can grab them later on.

This should be industry practice across the board. Don’t penalize gamers for being wise to retailer tricks, especially given the other big trend of 2011: nearly instant, huge price drops and sales.


The price drops raise an interesting question for gamers? Is $60 too much to pay for a game? We’ve been conditioned since before the start of this generation that we’d be paying more. In the past twelve months, though, countless gamers have been burned. We want to support publishers and developers we like. We know how important first week sales are, so why are you making us regret buying a game at launch?

The solution? Drop game prices to $50 and put a delay on price drops and sales. PC games are traditionally priced at $10 lower than Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 games. Retailers are slower to drop those prices once the game hits. Steam might offer a pre-order price at discount of 10% and Amazon might offer a credit toward your next purchase, but PC software prices are far more stable than console prices. Do I really think that a lower benchmark is likely? No, but I can dream.

That’s all for this edition of the ZTGD Reviewer Rodeo. Join us next week as we grab onto another bucking bronco of controversy and beat it into submission.

Got questions or comments? Drop ’em in the comment section below or hit us up via email. Suggestions for Reviewer Rodeo topics that you want our opinions on? Hit Mike up at michaelfutter@ztgamedomain.com.

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